The Thirty Year Siege
The Thirty Year Siege In the year 438 7E, after ascending to the throne, the King of Telmara (Faldon Baerain II) arranged for his brother (Garrad Baerain) to marry the Countess of Corwell. With Garrad sitting on the throne of Corwell, the current king of the Fellmen (Jonas IV) felt that his grip over the Corwell region might be endangered by the arrival of Garrad, brother to a different kingdom’s king. In 439 7E, Jonas had his senior mage mount a full scale “reconquest” of the city that included outright murdering Garrad by manipulating Garrad’s wife using power mind control magic. Once Garrad was killed, many of the mages in the local mage’s hall were conscripted to make sure the city belonged to Jonas. Any Garrad sympathizers were gathered up and killed, while Jonas’s senior mage along with hundreds of experienced mages began to fortify the city with powerful runes and a force field along the only entrance to the north of the city. News traveled quickly to Faldon and the rest of Numeris, and within a year, Faldon had two full legions of mighty warriors ready and eager to avenge Garrad. They marched south and by 440 7E, they had arrived to the gates of Corwell. They thought they could starve Corwell out, but large amounts of farmland was inside the gates of Corwell and the legions couldn’t wait too close to the walls, as the defenders were able to rain down arrows. Within a few months, the commander of the attack (Garus) had figured that the only way they were going to break the magic enhanced walls was from mages. Unfortunately, Numeris did not directly recruit mages, as the mages guild had broken free from having to contribute man power to the kings by instead paying taxes. Faldon tried to hire many mages at high prices, but few could be swayed to put their lives at risk. A year within the siege, by 441 7E, Faldon recalled one of the legions to protect Numeris, just in case the king of the Fellmen tried to attack their homeland. This was what Jonas was waiting for and within a month later Jonas lead his own army of 2,000 strong against the legion under Garus. The Battle of Corwell Fields took place on 441 7E where Garus was able to hold his own against Jonas with half as many troops and won them their first victory. After this defeat, Jonas returned to his capital and began to instead focus most of his attacks on Numeris in the following years. Corwell quickly became isolated, but never gave into the siege for years, supported by its massive grain supplies and powerful mages who could grow crops quickly. By 450 7E, most of the original legion had gone home leaving only a few hundred left to guard the entrance of Corwell. When Faldon had the chance, he replenished many of the men to the gates of Corwell by recruiting from the local populous. This made Faldon look like a weak king, because he had to rely on the locals to fight his wars, and lead to growing resentment against him. In 456 7E, King Faldon Baerain II died peacefully. His son, Faldon Baerain III, took control of the kingdom in the following months, vowing to end the siege quickly. His new plan involved bribing any he could within the city to join their cause along with applying more force. By 460 7E, some of the Corwellians started to defect and leave their town, only to be slaughtered by Garus outside the city. In 461 7E, Garus was replaced by a new commander named Alex Greene who changed their strategy in the following months to recruiting the defects. Logarn Blaydon, who had joined the legion a year ago, became one of Alex’s most influential advisors. By 466 7E, the outer wall of Corwell fell to the attackers and the defenders lost many of their farms that were kept outside the inner walls of the city. In 467 7E, Jonas’s senior mage defected and gave out many of the secrets of the city and how to crack through the city. Alex asked for reinforcements from the king, and by the end of the year 468 7E he was ready to push on into the city. Alex won the war and had the ruling council sign an accord of defeat. The treaty was called the Treaty of Corwell. The night after the Treaty of Corwell was signed, rat people came up from the caves underneath Corwell and murdered many of the men that had taken the city. Telmara's forces had been destroyed in a single night and Faldon III claimed that one day he would take back the city by killing the rat men. The city still belonged to Telmara on a map, but no large force could enter the city without the rat people reacting to the intrusion.